No strawberries on my strawberries!

[chloeg]

I planted some strawberries in september last year, gave them plenty of manure etc. and have left them alone since. I have a patch about 6ft by 3ft solid with them, and got only 3 strawberries, no flowers either! Any ideas what could have gone wrong? There are no obvious signs of disease. Grateful for any suggestions.

[Thomzo]

Hi
I only got a couple of strawberries this year as well. I think it was the weather. Too wet and dark. Keep the faith and hope for a better crop next year.

Zoe

[Annpan]

I got LOADS of strawberries off of my tiny cluster of 3 plants... with no manure. But I think that strawberries have a year off every few years... or something, maybe they are in a rest year?

[chloeg]

Thanks for your replies, I hesitated to just rip them out and buy more, so now I will just leave them alone for another year, not feed them any more, and see if they produce anything. Cheers.

[Millymollymandy]

Don't pull them out! It may just be the variety. I planted out Gariguette in September 2 years ago, and had about 3 pathetic strawberries from 6 plants last year.

This year they produced loads of wonderful fruit and all my other strawbs have done well despite a bit of slug damage which was the only problem the rain brought.

[ina]

Yes, I think you are right in not feeding them anymore. Don't forget: plants produce flowers and fruit when they think they are about to die... So keeping them a bit short might just do the trick!